Luke’s HAARP Time Warp: Part 3

Marion readies her attack.

Based on a post by somethin fishy,
in 15 parts. Listen to the Podcast at Explicit Novels.

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Chapter 11.

The next morning the three of them all woke at about the same time. Luke was
amazed that he had slept in and Cecilia was amazed that she had woken up early
and was so rested. Watching Marion trying to walk, Cecilia fell off the bed she
was laughing so hard. To rub salt into Marion’s wounds, Luke was chuckling a
bit as well and all Marion could do was blush. She was too sore, at the moment,
to do anything else. They all took turns with the chamber pot and after Marion
and Luke had washed each other up a bit; got dressed and went to get something
to eat.

In the dining area Luke was greeted like a mighty warrior; while Marion was
getting jealous looks from every woman in the room. Everyone had heard them and
every woman wanted to be her or have a man like she did. This actually cheered
Marion up quite well. She actually was enjoying the looks that she was getting;
after all it just proved that she had something that none of them could even
dream of. The innkeeper meanwhile had given the lovebirds free food. This
annoyed Luke but he yielded after the innkeeper explained that she was not only
very happy for them, but their love making had lured extra people in for supper
the night before. It had actually been standing room only and the only fighting
had been when someone else made too much noise. She had made more money off
Luke and Marion’s love making then she had made in the previous month. Marion’s
reaction to this got laughs from everyone in the room because she flushed the
deepest red that anyone had ever seen.

Cecilia had also noticed that she had been getting some jealous looks; but
hers were equally from men and women. It didn’t take her long to figure out
that they were jealous of her front row, well bed seat, to last night’s
entertainment. Of course, it didn’t hurt that all three of them smelled like
hot sex. Eventually they got done eating breakfast and returned to their room
to pack up. Within an hour they were on the road to York. The three of them
traveled quickly for Cecilia had given up on killing Marion on the road. Now
she figured that she would use Marion to keep Luke around. Of course, that
didn’t mean that Marion could be free; oh no. The first thing that Cecilia
planed on doing when she got home was to trump up some charges against Marion
to have her thrown in the dungeon. With Marion still alive, Cecilia could use
her to force Luke’s cooperation.

While traveling, Luke had noticed the change in Cecilia’s behavior. At first,
he had hoped that she might be starting to change, but a couple of comments,
that she made, put this theory to rest; after all how often do leopards change
their spots. Marion though, was overjoyed at her sister’s change in demeanor
for she had always wanted a loving sister growing up and now, apparently, she
had one. As they rode Cecilia and Marion talked and joked as if they were the
best of friends. Luke started to just ignore them and instead focused on
keeping a look out for traps.

The rest of their trip back to Cecilia and Marion’s land was uneventful.
Cecilia’s charm though, wasn’t fooling Luke and he began to mentally prepare
himself to do whatever he had to do, including abandoning Marion, in order to
keep his knowledge from getting into the wrong hands. As they passed back into
their family lands, the ladies immediately noticed a change. A blind person
could have seen it. Houses were burnt and the people that lived in the area
were starting to show signs of starvation. It was so bad that even Luke felt
sickened by the sights.

Cecilia and Marion were pale as ghost as they threw up everything in their
stomachs. Eventually, Marion found one of the people that she trusted. It was
an older woman, Lucy, who had lost her husband years before. Lucy had been
Marion’s nanny, back when Marion was younger and they had retained a close
friendship. When Marion first saw Lucy, Marion actually had to look very hard
to make sure for Lucy had changed so much since Marion had last seen her, and
that was just a week before Marion had left for London.

“Lucy what happened?”

“It was Richard. As soon as the three of you left for London, he moved in
and took over. The guards that remained loyal are rumored to be in Richard’s
dungeon; that is if they have not been killed by torture yet. Where is your
father anyway?” Lucy was so depressed and dirty that it broke Marion’s heart,
for she loved this woman. Lucy was the mother that Marion had never known.

“Father was killed in an ambush. John, Cecilia’s fiancé was killed too. The
ambush was led by none other than William.” Lucy hissed at hearing this.

“I am so sorry, Marion. Now the big question, who is the giant behind you?”

“Oh sorry. Lucy this is Luke. Luke this is Lucy. She took care of me when I
was younger. Lucy, Luke is the stranger that rescued Cecilia and me from the
ambush. He killed William with his bare hands and he has been keeping us safe
ever since. Also, we have fallen in love.”

“Oh really.”

“What, I am not allowed to fall in love?” Lucy smiled at this. Marion had
always had a bit of fire in her soul.

“Back to serious issues Marion, you three need to get out of here before you
are discovered. Word has it that Richard has put a bounty on your and Cecilia’s
heads.”

“Not to fear Lucy, the only head that is going to be collected will be
Richard’s” growled Luke.

Lucy now felt a spike of fear go through her. She had never heard a human
sound like this. This Luke sounded much more like a wild animal. More to her
surprise, the look on Marion’s face had hardened as well. Obviously these two
knew something that Lucy didn’t.

“Lucy, I need all the information and rumors that you have on this Richard
bastard.” Said Luke.

Over the next hour the woman told Luke everything that she knew about
Richard. Richard was an older Earl that lived next to their land and had been
eyeing Marion’s family land for years. Richard was one of those who get
everything that he wanted, mostly because he was very quick to resort to very
dirty and underhand tactics to get them. In the thirty years since Richard had
gained his Earldom, he had tripled his land holdings. In the process, he had
killed off whole villages and had put such a tax burden on the peasants living
on his land that many of them were in a constant state of half starvation. This
is what he had started doing in Cecilia and Marion’s lands, but here he taxed
the peasants at such a high rate that many of them would be dead by the end of
the year.

If a peasant couldn’t pay the tax then one of several things might happen to
them: they might be tortured, killed, if there were good looking women in the
family then they would be taken to serve Richard or his men, young boys would
be taken to be turned into soldiers. To put it simply, Richard viewed everyone
below him as an expendable plaything and everyone including the king was below
him, in his mind. By now, Cecilia had realized that she would have to put a
hold on getting revenge on Marion. There was no way that Cecilia would live
long enough to make up the charges against Marion, never mind pump Luke for
information.

Luke listened carefully to everything that the women told him and asked
pointed questions if he thought that they might have missed something. Finally,
Luke asked Lucy:

“Where can I find Richard?”

“Why he now lives in the castle” said Lucy while she pointed at the castle
that had once been Marion and Cecilia’s home. Luke gave Lucy some money and one
of their extra horses and told her to get lost and if he failed to get rid of
Richard, never come back. Luke had figured out, listening to all the stories
that the only way to get rid of Richard was to kill him. So that’s what Luke
set out to do. He had Marion show him a spot from which Luke could watch the
castle and remain hidden. He then told Cecilia and Marion to get back to
Lincoln and stay there until Luke sent for them. Cecilia was good with this,
Marion wasn’t. Eventually it was agreed that Cecilia would travel to Lincoln
with Lucy and Marion would help Luke. The ladies hugged each other when Cecilia
set off with Lucy. Luke and Marion had given almost all their money to Cecilia
and Lucy. Luke had told Lucy that she should find some business to invest in.
That way she could keep making money and would have a secure future.

Luke now had to face the problem that he didn’t know what Richard looked
like. Yes, he could shoot Richard from a long way off, but he had to know what
Richard looked like first. Marion couldn’t take Luke to show him Richard,
because too many people in the castle knew Marion. Then he hit on a solution.
Luke would go into the castle, claiming to be a Scottish mercenary looking for
a new job.

“How are you going to do that?” asked Marion “You’re not Scottish.”

“Something I haven’t mentioned to you, my family name is MacDougall, and
I’ve spent enough time in Scotland to fake the accent good enough. Just have to
hope that Richard doesn’t have any other MacDougall’s around.”

“Damn it Luke, how many more secrets do you have?”

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